“Local journalists” and “fixers” are often undervalued and ill-supported despite their vital contributions to journalism in conflict zones. In solidarity with our freelance journalist colleagues in Ukraine, we hosted an online panel on April 20, 2022 to hear directly from Ukrainian freelancers about the challenges they’re facing and the support they need.
Speakers included:
Natalie Gryvnyak, freelance journalist
Alex Guzenko, freelance journalist
Julia Kochetova, freelance documentary photographer and filmmaker
Anton Skyba, freelance photojournalist and media producer
Moderator: Susie Armitage, freelance journalist and Freelance Solidarity Project member
About our speakers:
Natalie Gryvnyak is a Ukrainian freelance journalist with bylines in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, PRI, PBS, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and other publications. She is a media and film producer, consultant, and the founder and owner of InFeatures Story Production, a company that provides multimedia content, projects, and collaborations with international media and business entities. She is a consultant for the Committee to Protect Journalists in Ukraine and has written about the physical and emotional toll for journalists covering the war.
Alex Guzenko is a Ukrainian freelance journalist with recent work in New York Magazine and The Kyunghyang Shinmun. After studying journalism at university, he worked as a management consultant in Kyiv before the war and is now based in Lviv where he works as a consultant and translator for foreign media.
Julia Kochetova is a Ukrainian photojournalist and filmmaker based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Her photos covering the Maidan Revolution, the annexation of Crimea and the Donbas war have been published by the BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Huffington Post, National Geographic, Bild Am Abend, Gazeta Prawna, Le Nouvel Observateur, Ceska Televize, Zeit and others. These pictures were also exhibited and included in photography books published in the United Kingdom, United States, France, Serbia, Germany and Ukraine.
Anton Skyba is a Ukrainian photojournalist and media producer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He interrupted his corporate photography career in Donetsk to start covering the conflict in Ukraine as a fixer and later as a photojournalist and media producer. Anton cooperates with different international media outlets to produce news, features and documentaries as a producer and photographer. He also provides consulting services in his fields of expertise. His clients include the BBC, CBC, PBS, CNN, Vice, The Globe and Mail, La Croix, The Huffington Post, RFE/RL, Knack, Fuji TV, CCTV, TBS, Le Slate, Zaborona, PAX, Amnesty International and others.